Growing meat from cells involves more than increasing their numbers. Cells also need to develop into muscle and form the structure that gives meat its texture. A patent filing from Nanyang Technological University explores how fibres held under tension can guide this development while combining manufacturing steps.
Spinning Cells Into Supportive Fibres
The published application [WO2026161026A1] describes mixing muscle precursor cells with food-grade materials to form scaffolds, supporting structures in which cells grow.
Many scaffold-based methods make the structure before adding cells. Here, cells are incorporated as the fibres are formed, combining these steps.
In one example, stem cells obtained from fat tissue are mixed with alginate and gelatin. The mixture is spun into thin fibres and wound around a rotating drum sleeve, like thread around a spool (Figure 1). The fibres remain on the sleeve during culture in growth medium, maintaining tension.
Figure 1. Spinning cells into fibres that guide muscle development. Cell-containing fibres remain wound around drum sleeves while submerged in growth medium. This maintains tension, which helps encourage muscle differentiation. Source: Figure 1 of the patent application.
This physical environment encourages cells to develop muscle characteristics. After 21 days, 76% of cells in fibres held under tension showed a protein associated with later-stage muscle development, compared with 53% when tension was reduced. The cells developed these characteristics in growth medium without switching to a dedicated muscle differentiation medium. However, the experiments used serum-containing medium, so the results do not demonstrate serum-free production.
This approach could simplify scaffold preparation and muscle cultivation. Its performance and costs at commercial scale still need to be established.
Connecting Materials Science With Food
Nanyang Technological University is a research-intensive public university in Singapore. Its Single-Step Scaffold Technology Laboratory, led by Lay Poh Tan, studies materials for cultivated meat and tissue engineering.
This filing builds on that work by using the scaffold’s physical properties to help guide cell development.
Congratulations and a warm thank you to the inventors: Lay Poh Tan and Jasmine Si Han Seah, for investigating how scaffold design can support muscle development for cultivated meat.
About the Author
I am Nidhi Mote, a biomedical scientist and science communicator with a PhD in bioengineering and hands-on experience in cell biology, microfluidics, biomaterials, and advanced 2D/3D in vitro models. I enjoy understanding how technologies work, solving technical problems, and thinking about how they can become useful products. At Lab Grown Technologies, I translate emerging technologies in cellular agriculture, tissue engineering, and cell culture into lucid content. Whether I am understanding a new technology, explaining it to a non-specialist, or thinking through how it could become a useful product, I am most interested in the space between technical depth and practical application. Based in Hamburg, I am open to opportunities in Field Application Science, Technical Product Management, and technology-driven roles where scientific expertise meets customers, products, and commercial strategy.
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This article is based on publicly available information. Lab Grown Technologies is not affiliated with the inventors or organizations mentioned.
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